Family Room Refresher

I've been working on refreshing the furniture in our family room for a while now...

I started this project last February and it should have been pretty simple.

Recover the sofa and chairs and get some new pillows.

I've done it before.  

In fact, I had recovered the sofa and chairs in question three times before, over the last 25 years.  

Three times.  

But they were well made and had held up nicely.

I set off to find new fabric at one of my favorite fabric sources, 

Walter E Smithe Furniture, a Chicago area store 

and the same store where I had purchased the sofa and chairs those 25 years ago.

I might just be getting old.

There I met Barb, sales lady extrordinaire, and we got busy selecting fabrics.

Then I spotted a sofa on their showroom floor that I really liked.

And some fabric that I loved.  Boom.  New sofa time.

Here it is, begging for some pillows.

Here's the back view of the new sofa.  

I really like the lines, and you see them when you enter the room.

Here's a side view of the new sofa, showing one of the old chairs too.

I was going to recover them to coordinate with the new green fabric on the sofa, 

but they just didn't work.

Just kinda frumpy.

Barb to the rescue again.  Time for some new chairs.  

Voila!  

Remember the old chairs?

And now the new chairs-

You can see how much Burly likes them.

The next challenge was to find fabric for new pillows for the sofa and chairs.  

Not easy.

Apparently my colors are not gray or beige or "greige".

That would have been too easy.

It's hard to find clear colors these days. 

 My first choice was an absolutely gorgeous fabric that tied the sofa and chair fabric together perfectly.

   Another small problem.  $350.00 a Yard!!!  

Not happening.  

People will actually use these pillows... 

  

Anyway, months went by, life kept happening and I made no progress.

Then I finally found some great textured gold pillows from Bed, Bath and Beyond 

to layer with this more reasonably priced, printed linen fabric. 

And then I happened upon this little green petal pillow at Pier One 

while shopping there with Darling Daughter. 

Finally!  

Done. 

I like the mix of colors and textures and patterns 

and the pop of the petal pillow is really fun.

I had these little lumbar pillows made out of a piece of fabric 

I had bought several years ago, for no good reason, simply because I could not resist it.  

So soft and fluffy, like a cozy sweater.  

They work on the gold chairs, and I love the texture.

And here's a peek at a quilt I just finally finished last week 

when the high temperatures here were -15*,  for several days in a row.  

Nothing to do but sit with a warm quilt in my lap. 

I also made a baby quilt for a special little baby girl last week, too.

More on that after I have mailed it to her happy family...

Stay warm.


Linking to:
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Fabulously Creative Friday at Jennifer Rizzo
Be Inspired at Common Ground

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

Fairy Tale Houses

I spent some time recently in my home town of Westfield, New Jersey....

I wandered around the streets and neighborhoods of my childhood, 

my mind flooded with memories of growing up there, 

of the friends and families I had known 

and the places that had made marks on my memory.

On one walk with my sweet sister in law, Maureen, 

I am sure I embarrassed her by insisting we stop so I could photograph this house....

Call me snoopy, but it had sold recently and it was vacant 

and I just couldn't resist the chance to look at it more closely.

It's the Wychwood Gate House.

Everyone from Westfield knows this house.

I never really knew anything about it growing up there.

It always seemed so mysterious and enchanted.

It's set way back from the road, in a very wooded spot.

It was built as part of a very swanky development in the twenties-

"Oh, they live in Wychwood..." 

So exclusive that they need a Gate House with a towering gate 

and a giant key

It's hard to get the scale of this house across through photographs.

It's so tall and dramatic and intricate.

And Maureen was waiting patiently for me to get the heck out of her neighbors yard...

The texture and the detail are amazing.

I love the leaded glass and the copper finials.

The treatment of the overhangs is very dramatic and enchanting.

Love the color of the mullions.

This is the dining room nook... 

Looks like something straight out of an English village.

This door leads into the kitchen.

(I know this from snooping at one of the websites that had the home listed. 

There is a link at the end of this post)

In this photo, you can almost get a feel for the height of the house.  

I wonder how the views are from those uppermost windows...  

I bet you can see New York City.

The main Gate House has a companion gate house, in miniature, 

on the opposite side of the road, with it's own gate.

Look at the amazing brick work there.  

And this window and terrace...

I would have loved to snoop around a bit more in this yard, but this home is occupied, 

and I didn't want Maureen to have to explain anything to her neighbors about me...

The details of the Gate House everywhere are wonderful 

but homes like this need constant care.  

As I peeked into the windows, I thought the new owners would have their hands full 

if they wanted to bring it up to today's standards...

Astonishingly, as I was doing a bit of Google research 

to share with you about this house,

I discovered that it burned the week after I was there!!!

Here is a link to an article about the fire.  

They say it can be saved, and I truly hope so.

You can read more about the Wychwood Gatehouse from a Real Estate Listing here.

This amazing website has beautiful interior and exterior photos 

and floor plans and maps. 

Just Wow.

My Mother's House, Revisited

Dear Friends,
My Mom passed away on Sunday, November 24th, 2013
after a long battle with dementia.

I am re-posting this
because I think it's a nice way to remember her
and how beautiful she truly was.
And to help explain where I've been for the past month...

So here goes.



(Originally posted in July, 2012)

I am going home soon, to New Jersey, to visit my Mom.

I hope she still remembers me.

She has dementia now
and

her world has been made very small by her disease.  

But once upon a time,

it was full of style and color and whimsy.

It's what I try to remember about her.

Let me show you.

Mom's house, on an early fall day. 

Kind of understated and elegant on the outside.

 Come inside, though, and see what she was really into...

Mom's house was always a riot of color and fabric and collections.

 The turquoise floral print was her inspiration for the entire first floor.

She used Cranberry glass used as an accent everywhere.

She collected Edna Hibbel prints.

 I think she really liked the breezy, free and colorful style of her work.

And she displayed things with a whimsical touch.

She collected crystal and silver and anything else she liked.

The dining room was her showcase.

She painted it red way before it was trendy.

And yes, the hallway is pink...

I loved that crystal chandelier, but she loved the one in the dining room more. 

It was a family heirloom and she treasured it.

Interesting silver pieces - chocolate pots, teapots, serving pieces galore.

She liked a little drama.

 and a lot of stuff...

 Maybe a little too much stuff...

but always interesting and beautiful.

And in the kitchen, she felt even freer to display things she thought were "Kind of Fun"...

Ice cream cones and Scotties and clowns and lobsters and more.

We spent a lot of time at this table, plotting our adventures together.

I really miss going home to visit her here.

 This is my favorite picture of her.  

She was still well and stylish and I wanted that necklace sooo much.  

She took me to the shop where she got it, but alas, they had no more.  

Never mind.  I have it now.  

I wear it often, especially when I am going someplace I know she would have enjoyed.  

It's kind of like bringing her with me. 

I wish.

Rest in Peace, Mom.

I love you.